Friday, May 17, 2013

After all, nothing heals the hurt of time elapsed since blog posts like some tummy warming pumpkin cookies while us Southern Hemisphere-ans experience our winter!

I hope to try and get back into the swing of things of keeping my little corner of the internet updated, I've made it a bit more reading friendly with black print on a white background, I'm sorry it took me so long! It's kind of nice to browse the archives and see what I was up to before I had my braces put on, had my blackwork started, grown my hair a bit. I think I have a border-lining Warhol level of wanting to document the things around me, and I'm done with feeling bad for it, so here's hoping I can direct some of that energy here!

In the meantime, find a nice locally grown, fresh butternut pumpkin & give this recipe a shot. If you're a fan of anything with a hint of sweetness, spice, pumpkin and walnutty crunch, you're going to love these! They go down especially well with a nice hot cup of strong black tea :)

Be sure to read the authors notes on pumpkin puree & ingredient substitution, as this recipe is easily made vegan/gluten free.

Authors notes:* Butter can be easily replaced with a (V) substitute, like Nuttelex. The recipe called for white sugar, but I like brown sugar much more. The recipe also calls for an egg, but I used egg replacer for one egg to avoid that eggy taste. Chocolate chips can be dark or milk free if you desire.** I used plain flour, but a good plain gluten free flour would work as well. Chopped walnuts are purely optional, and if you wanna use another nut, go for it.*** Loads of recipes called for pumpkin puree from a tin and I have no idea where to get that, so here's how to make your own, easy as. Get a good butternut pumpkin, peel, deseed & cut up into smaller than an inch chunks. You'll need twice the weight of pumpkin chunks to what the recipe calls for, as they cook down. What I do is place the pumpkin in a microwave safe bowl & cover the top of the bowl with cling wrap. Place the bowl in the microwave and microwave on high, for about ten minutes. BE CAREFUL WHEN REMOVING FROM THE MICROWAVE AND HANDLING THE CLINGFILM, removing the clingfilm will release all this pumpkin steam and give you one helluva burn if you're not super careful. When the pumpkin is cooked to the point that it's falling to pieces, get a stick blender (I used a good ol' fashioned fork) and smash the pumpkin to a pureed paste. It's ready to use!

How to!- Prepare your pumpkin puree and set aside to cool. Preheat your oven to 190 degrees (fan forced, 180 conventional oven) and line baking trays with baking paper.- Cream butter & sugar together with your electric beaters until smooth and light. Add the egg & beat until creamy and fluffy.- Stir in the pumpkin puree & vanilla extract. Beat for a minute or until all is combined well.

Yu-uum.

- In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg together. Add this to the pumpkin mixture. Stir to combine, it takes a bit of time to incorporate it all together, but just be careful and patient.- Stir the chocolate chips and walnuts into the dough.- Add teaspoonfuls to the baking paper lined trays, slightly flatten each cookie as you place it. If you have to, you can keep the dough in the fridge while baking it in batches.- Bake for about ten minutes, or until the cookie golden & slightly brown on the edges. Remove from oven, let cool on tray for about five minutes then transfer to a cooling rack. They are simply splendiforous fresh from the oven, but also keep for five days in an airtight container. Enjoy!